Josh Spector

A Connected Comedy Interview With Manager And Producer Reg Tigerman

Member Exclusives16 Comments

I’m excited to introduce a new series of interviews here on Connected Comedy through which I’ll be able to share with you some of the expertise of various people working in the comedy industry.

To kick things off, I recently spoke to Reg Tigerman, who works as a manager and producer with the Levity Entertainment Group based in Los Angeles. Here’s what Reg had to say about what he looks for in new talent, how he thinks comedians should approach their career, and the role that social media and digital tools can play in getting you discovered and improving your act.

Can you tell me a little bit about your background? How did you get into comedy, how did you wind up working for Levity, and what exactly is your current role at Levity?

I graduated college and moved back to my hometown of Los Angeles, knowing I wanted to work in the entertainment industry – specifically in comedy – but not sure exactly where. I started as a Graphics Assistant on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson then transitioned to an Executive Assistant position at a reality television production company.

I realized reality fare wasn’t my cup of tea and wanted to be more involved in the comedy world. My understanding boss connected me with a company called Levity, which seemed to be in the center of the comedy world: managing comedians and producing comedy specials.

I interviewed, got a job, and now after three years I’ve found myself in a role of talent manager, brand manager and producer. I am the brand manager for Jeff Dunham, coordinating his consumer products business, digital platform, and production needs. I also manage comedians for whom I hope to build just as robust and expansive careers.

When you’re looking for new talent, what is it specifically that you look for? What makes one comedian stand out over another?

In its most simple form, I’m looking for someone that makes me laugh. But to break it down a little – I’m looking for someone with talent and a unique voice or point of view. It doesn’t have to be extreme or alternative, just true to the individual.

Also, someone who understands that this is a business and treats his or her craft with discipline. But most importantly, someone who is FUNNY. With all the comedy I’ve seen, it’s harder and harder to make me laugh, so someone that does will stand out above the rest.

What do you think is the biggest misconception up and coming comedians have about the “business” of comedy?

That it’s exactly what you said: a business. A lot of comedians think all they need to do is get on stage and be funny. Yes, that’s extremely important, but they have to treat their art, their craft, like a business.

Like any other job, a comedian needs to work at it for hours a day, multiple days a week. He or she needs to set objectives and develop strategies to achieve those goals, constantly review their progress, then evaluate if they need to make any changes.

Do you think things like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and blogs are important to a comedian’s career?

Extremely.  First, all those things give the comedian a chance to practice their craft every day. They can explore their voice and learn from the audience’s reaction.
Second, these outlets are a great opportunity to give comedians exposure. It could be a viral video or funny tweet that gets a comedian his or her next job.

What advice would you give to comedians who are looking to get management or other representation?

First off, make sure you’re prepared: you have a tape for them to watch, a website to point them to, and possibly an upcoming show where they can check you out live. Second, be persistent, but don’t be pushy. Managers and agents are busy and may not get to your stuff right away, so it’s ok to check in every now and then, but nothing get’s more annoying than someone who emails or calls every day.

What have you learned from the successful comedians that you have worked or interacted with over the course of your career?

The ones that do the best are the ones that treat comedy like a business. They are extremely disciplined, ambitious, set goals, and follow through on them. Motivated and disciplined artists are hard to come by, so actually doing the work, and hopefully some of the time it’s good, will go a long way.

What can comedians do to increase their chances of getting work, even after they’ve landed representation?

Getting representation does not guarantee work. It gives artists opportunities and opens doors that weren’t available before, but it doesn’t give them a free ticket to coast and rely on their representation for jobs.

For a comedian, it’s about continually writing new material, shooting funny videos, just doing creative things. Also, it’s great to meet regularly with your representative to discuss your objectives, so you can both continue to be working towards them.

Do you think comedians have to move to LA or New York in order to further their career? And if so, how do they decide when is the right time to make the move?

There is no rule. A comedian can get a big break while in New York or LA. However, if I could map out an ideal trajectory for a comedian’s career, I would say they should start in New York, where there are endless places to do stand-up, especially where there aren’t creepy industry folks lurking around.

They can hone their craft in obscurity, bombing without having to worry about who might see them. Once they’re ready, they can move to LA, complain about how bad the stand-up scene is compared to New York, but enter the casting world and be introduced to other club managers as a well-groomed, finely tuned comedian.

What do you think is the most important trend or shift happening in the comedy industry right now?

Robots. Besides robots, even though the internet has proven itself as a testing ground for comedy for years now, it’s still amazing the power of a highly viewed online video or rabidly followed Twitter page. Also, seeing all these new, innovative shows pop up around the city is cool.  Innovation and experimentation leads to new comedy….or robots.

What one piece of advice would you give to comedians hoping to further their career?

Write. Get on stage. Write. Get on stage. Set goals. Write. Get on stage. Evaluate goals. Recalibrate goals. Write. Get on stage. And Write.

If you’ve got a question for Reg, feel free to post it in the comments.

How To Find Your Comedy Niche

Member Exclusives20 Comments

It’s never easy to grow your fanbase and it can often be overwhelming to figure out how to connect your comedy to an audience that will enjoy it.

But one of the best ways to solve this challenge is to find your own comedy niche.

When I work with comedians I ask them who they think the audience is for their material and too often, the answer I get from is that their audience is just “people who like funny stuff.”

There’s nothing wrong with that answer, but there’s also nothing helpful about it.

“People who like funny stuff” is such a broad target audience that it doesn’t really mean anything – and that makes it much more difficult for you to grow your fanbase.

By comparison, if your answer to that question is something like people who have kids, or people who love sports, or people who are tech geeks, or just about anything else that conveys a specific set of non-comedy interests then everything you do becomes easier and you have a dramatically increased chance of success. That’s because focusing on a specific comedy niche will inform the content you create, the ways you promote it, and how you go about building your career.

In short, it gives you something to build a plan around.

If you don’t have a niche beyond just being funny, you’re making things much harder on yourself than they need to be. Here’s a few things to consider when you’re trying to figure out what your comedy niche could be…

What Are You Passionate About?

Besides comedy and making people laugh, what are you most passionate about in life? The things you’re most passionate about are the things you should incorporate into your comedy niche because that’s what you’re going to naturally be drawn to discussing in your comedy and your content.

Are you passionate about politics? Sports? Classic cars? The military? Music? It really doesn’t matter what it is, just that you identify what you like to do beyond comedy and what you like to talk to people about. Whatever passions you have are likely shared by lots of other people and those are the people that will become your target audience and form the foundation of your fanbase.

Don’t be afraid that your passions are too small to form a niche for your comedy. There’s really no such thing as too obscure a comedy niche – in fact, it’s possible that the more obscure your passion the more successful you’ll wind up being in growing your fan base in that niche. And the reason for that is…

Being One In A Thousand Is Better Than Being One In A Million

This may seem counter-intuitive but it’s actually better to focus on a more narrow niche than it is to focus on a huge niche (which is also why it’s not a good plan to just go after “comedy fans” or “people who like funny stuff” – it’s too broad).

The narrower your comedy niche is, the more likely you are to connect with fans of that niche, the less competition you will have for their attention, and the more likely you are to have a passionate and connected fanbase.

As you think about your passions and consider what your comedy niche may be, also think about how you can drill down even deeper into that niche and you may see some interesting possibilities surface.

For example, there’s lots of comedians out there whose niche has become nerd/fanboy culture including everything from movies to comic books. But what if you were really passionate about Marvel comic books specifically? Could you develop a comedy blog or video series built solely around Marvel-inspired humor? Probably. And you’d know exactly where to find the audience for that content because it would be other Marvel fans. And the chances are, they’d love what you created because you have a shared passion.

Plus, you’re no longer competing with other fanboy comedians, because you’ve now carved out your own niche within that bigger niche. You’ve made yourself unique by focusing on a narrower niche.

What Is Your Expertise?

Another great way to find a niche for yourself is to consider what unique expertise you may have that can inform your comedy. For example, Alex Barnett is a comedian in New York (and a Connected Comedy reader) who used to be a lawyer. He’s now parlayed his legal background into a niche appealing to lawyers which has allowed him to book corporate gigs performing for law organizations and recently was hired to write a recurring column for Lawyerist.com.

If you consider what non-comedy expertise you have – either from past work experience, a hobby, or something in your personal background – you’ll likely find similar opportunities to use that expertise to create some comedy opportunities for yourself.

You Can Have Multiple Niches

You should also understand that you can appeal to multiple comedy niches, so don’t feel like you have to limit yourself to just one. Each niche will bring its own set of opportunities and you should be willing to explore several different possibilities to see what comes from them. As you go, you’ll likely find that certain niches will click for you and those are ultimately going to be the ones you’ll focus on because you’ll go where you’re having the most success.

But initially, don’t be afraid to try to create projects for different niches – as long as you’re focusing on niches where you have a passion and/or expertise for the subject. Don’t try to go after a niche because you think there’s opportunities there if it’s not something you really are genuinely interested in – the fans in that niche will see right through you and it won’t work.

If you’re considering going after a specific niche and want some suggestions about how best to approach it, please leave a comment on this post and tell me what you’re thinking about. I’ll be happy to give you some feedback.

5 Things You Can Learn From The Success Of Pixar

Articles1 Comment

This past weekend I watched The Pixar Story, an excellent documentary about the origins and success of the world’s most successful computer animation company.

In watching it, I noticed several things comedians could learn from the story of Pixar’s success and I thought I’d share a few of them with you here.

1. There’s Never A Guarantee Of Success

One of the the interesting things about Pixar is that from the beginning the company (and its founders) never had any semblance of a guarantee they would be successful. And I don’t just mean successful financially, I mean successful at even creating a computer animated movie.

When the company and its animators first began, there was no such thing as computer animation – let alone a computer animated movie. These people took a huge leap of faith to believe they could literally invent a way to use computers for animation, figure out how to make a movie using the tools they invented, and then assume that movie would ultimately be successful.

But the people behind Pixar weren’t afraid to give it a shot and pursue their dream. They knew it had never been done before, but they chose to focus on what they believed was possible as opposed to dwelling on what was the reality of the time.

As a comedian, you also need to have a blind faith that whatever you’re hoping to create can become a reality. Pursuing a comedy career comes with no guarantees of success – it’s not like going to law school or medical school and coming out with a degree and a job. You have to recognize there’s no guarantee you’ll ever succeed as a comedian, but be willing to pursue that dream anyway.

Just because the odds are against you, it doesn’t mean you can’t succeed.

2. The Industry’s Interests Are Not The Same As Yours

There’s a great story in the documentary about Pixar’s head animator John Lasseter during his time working for Disney as a traditional animator (before he joined Pixar). At Disney, Lasseter managed to convince his bosses to let him create an experimental short film made solely with computer animation.

After spending almost a year working on the film, it came time for him to screen it for the Disney executives. They hated it.

At the end of the screening, the top executive asked Lasseter if this new computer animation would make it faster or cheaper to produce films than traditional animation. The answer to both questions was no. Then the executive said, “So why the hell would we ever do this?”

Less than an hour after that meeting, Lasseter was fired from Disney.

This story illustrates an important lesson for comedians – the interests of the “industry” will likely be very different than your own personal interests – but that doesn’t mean your interests are wrong.

Disney didn’t care about changing the status quo unless it was going to make their products faster or cheaper – they didn’t want to see the future possibilities of this new path because they were comfortable dominating the animation industry at the time.

But Lasseter, who then went on to team up with the people that formed Pixar, had different interests. He wanted to experiment, to push the boundaries of his industry, and to create his own path. His interests didn’t align with his industry’s and he was willing to find his own way. Ultimately, his interests wound up revolutionizing the industry as a whole and it was Disney who had to play catch up to him.

As a comedian, you’re going to get a lot of advice from people who will encourage you to align your interests with those of the comedy “industry” at the moment. But just because that’s what the industry thinks it wants now, doesn’t mean that it’s what’s right for you in the long run.

3. Be Prepared To Fail

As with most things that become successful, Pixar’s success didn’t come overnight. The documentary details the long and frustrating path it took for Pixar to ultimately succeed and points out that investor Steve Jobs poured millions of dollars into the company to keep it afloat for years.

Jobs believed so strongly in the potential for computer animation and in the vision of the people working for the company, that he was willing to be patient and continue to fund and chase the company’s goal. He understood it was likely the company would fail for many years before it ultimately succeeded.

As a comedian, you need to have similar patience. It’s going to take time to build a fanbase and grow your career and you’ll encounter a lot of failure before you ultimately find any success. But that’s ok as long as you go into it with that understanding.

While Jobs had to keep writing checks to keep the Pixar dream alive, you will need to keep working at yours and be willing to continually experiment with new approaches until you find the one that clicks.

4. Be Multi-dimensional

I’ve talked before about why I think it’s important for comedians to think about themselves in much broader terms than just being a stand up comedian – it’s important to be multi-dimensional. The Pixar story is another great example of why this is important and why it works.

You may not realize it, but Pixar spent years as a computer graphics company, invented software, and worked on commercials for years before they ever managed to launch an animated film. The company understood it needed to be able to use its talents in multiple different ways in order to survive and progress toward their ultimate goal of making animated films.

The same is true for your comedy career – it’s important to know what your ultimate goal with your career is but it’s equally important to be willing to use every tool at your disposal and explore different forms of comedy in order to get there. Don’t just be a stand up comedian – be a writer, podcaster, video maker, blogger, actor, and much more.

5. Be Honest About Your Own Creations

When Pixar landed its first movie deal with Disney for Toy Story, it turned in an initial cut of the movie and were shocked when the Disney executives hated it. In fact, they hated it so much they halted production and scrapped the whole project.

But the Pixar team, despite their massive disappointment, regrouped and looked at their film again. What they discovered was that they agreed with Disney – the film wasn’t very good. So they spent a whirlwind three weeks reworking the entire story and presented a revised cut to Disney.

Disney then loved the new cut and the movie was saved.

None of that would have happened if Pixar wasn’t willing to be honest about its own creation – it would have been easy to assume that the evil executives at Disney just didn’t get it, but they were able to honestly critique their own work and realize that it was flawed. Being able to make that judgment allowed them to fix it and likely save the movie (and the company).

As a comedian, you need to be honest about your own creations as well. You probably know what you do that’s good and what you do that’s not. Be honest with yourself and don’t be afraid to scrap things that aren’t your best work. The more you can be your own critic, the less other people will have to be.

These are just a few of the many things you can learn from The Pixar Story – I’d really recommend you check it out if you get a chance. Here’s the film’s trailer in case you’re curious:

Are You Getting The Maximum Value Out Of Your Material?

Articles4 Comments

The other day on the Connected Comedy Facebook Page I posted an update with a new opportunity for my readers.

Next week I’m launching So Crazy So True, a website which will feature crazy true stories from a variety of talented writers. I thought it would be a cool opportunity for some of you to get extra exposure for yourself (click here if you’re interested), and that’s why I posted the update.

What surprised me was the reaction I got from readers, several of whom responded that they didn’t want to “waste” their stage material. I’ve heard similar things from comedians who are afraid to post videos of their jokes on YouTube or to post stories they use in their act on their own websites or blogs.

This leads me to a question for you: Are you getting the maximum value out of your material?

I understand it’s difficult to develop an act and that you don’t have limitless amounts of material – especially when it comes to things like true stories. But it’s interesting that so many comedians automatically assume that saving their “best” stories for the stage will be the most beneficial thing for  their career and I’m not sure that’s the case.

For the purposes of this hypothetical, let’s say that you’ve got an incredible bit based on a story of something that happened to you. Your instinct is probably to “protect” that bit and only use it in your live stand up act. So you don’t post it on YouTube, or write it up on your blog, or use it in any other medium.

But now let’s break down what that actually means.

Even if you use that story every single time you perform, how many people will you actually reach with that amazing story? Even if you performed for 1,000 people a week for a year that killer bit would only be seen by 52,000 people in a year.

And none of those 52,000 people could share your bit with their friends beyond just telling them, “Hey, I saw a guy and he had a really funny story,” which doesn’t really do anything to grow your fanbase.

Now imagine you took that same story and posted it as a video on YouTube. If it’s truly a great story, it would likely get seen and shared by people. There’s no guarantee of course, but that same story would have the potential to be seen by a LOT more than 52,000 people over the course of the year.

That single bit of your material could lead to you being exposed to millions of people as opposed to just 50,000. You see, there’s a lot more upside to YouTube than there is by keeping the material limited to your stage performance.

I know many of you are afraid to “burn” the material by putting it out there but that’s not a likely problem either. Even if a million people saw your bit, the chances are that the majority of people who come see you live still won’t have seen the bit so that’s an overstated problem.

Most comedians tend to hold back from posting their best material online because they’re afraid of giving it away, but when you think about it that’s actually the opposite of what you should do. You should post your best material online because it has the best chance of getting seen by the most people and growing your fanbase – don’t keep it a secret by saving it for your act, because that just makes it tougher for you to grow your fanbase.

Now I’m sure some of you are doubting this strategy, but I’ll share with you a quick example of the impact this can have.

Four years ago, Anjelah Johnson was just another up and coming comedian. But then, she posted a video of her nail salon bit on YouTube. That video exposed her bit to the world, generated 23 million views, and launched her career.

It turned her into a headlining comedian, led to TV gigs, and catapulted her career because she put her material where it could be seen by the most people instead of just saving it for her live act.

I’m not saying you have to post everything you do online, and I’m not guaranteeing that just because you post a bit online that you’ll become rich and famous. But you should take a moment to consider if your current strategy is really allowing you to get the maximum value out of your best material – or are you just making it harder on yourself?

10 Key Statistics You Need To Check On Your Website

Member ExclusivesLeave a comment

In order to get the most out of your website, it’s important to understand exactly how people are finding and using your site. Luckily, this information is relatively easy to decipher if you know what to look for and use the right tools to track it.

I’d recommend you install Google Analytics to track the traffic to your website. Google Analytics is free and very easy to install – just cut and paste a little bit of code on to your site and you’re good to go. If you don’t have Google Analytics installed yet, here’s some basic details about how to do it.

Once you’ve installed Google Analytics on your site, you’ll need to understand what the statistics you’ll be able to access mean and which ones you should care about. Here’s the 10 key ones you’ll want to examine:

1. Absolute Unique Visitors

This is about as basic as it gets – it’s the number of individual people who have visited your website during a given time frame. You can find this number by clicking on the “Visitors” button on the menu on the left hand side of your screen.

2. Visits

This is the total number of times people have visited your website. When combined with your Absolute Unique Visitors number, you can figure out approximately how often the average person visits your site. For example, if you have 500 unique visitors and 1,000 visits to your site this week, then you know that the average person who comes to your site comes to it twice a week. This is important because it allows you to figure out whether people are enjoying what they find and actually returning to your site regularly or not.

3. Page Views

This is the total number of pages that were viewed on your site. It’s important for a couple different reasons – first, it will give you an idea of how much people are clicking around (or not clicking around) on your site. For example, if you had 1,000 visits to the site and 2,500 page views then you know the average person clicks through to view about 2.5 different pages on your site.

Your page views number is also important if you plan to try to monetize your site with ads. The more page views you get, the more money you’ll make because each page that loads features new ad impressions and you will get paid on those impressions. This is why you often see sites make you click through 10 different pages to see a list of 10 different photos – each time you click to load another page, they’re getting paid to load new ads.

4. Bounce Rate

The bounce rate of your site is the percentage of visitors who leave your website without visiting any other pages than the one that they first entered on. Your bounce rate is presented as a percentage and is important because it speaks to whether people find your site interesting or not.

For example, if 1,000 people visit your site and 600 of those people leave without looking at more than one page on your site, then your bounce rate will be 60%. Basically, the lower your bounce rate, the more compelling your website is. That said, it’s important to understand that your bounce rate will likely never be lower than 20% – your goal should be to try to get your bounce rate below 50% if possible. That will mean that the majority of people who visit your site are interested enough in it to click around and see what you’re up to.

5. Referring Sites

Referring Sites shows you how people found your site. Did they come from links posted on other blogs? Did they come from links posted on Facebook or Twitter? Did they come from searches in Google? Referring sites allows you to see where every single visitor to your site came from and it’s a great tool to help you understand how effective your promotion is being and to see how people are finding you and who’s linking to you.

You can also see a breakdown of how traffic from each individual source performs and you’ll find some sources send better traffic than others. For example, maybe your traffic from Facebook has a bounce rate of 40%, but your traffic from Google has a bounce rate of 60% – this tells you that people coming from Facebook are more valuable to you than people coming from Google.

6. Top Content

The Top Content section of Google Anayltics shows you a list of what pages on your site are getting viewed the most. This is obviously important because it shows you which pages on your site are the most popular and shows you which pages present the best opportunity for you to reach people. For example, you may have a particular blog post on your site that regularly receives more traffic than your home page – so make sure that page is also promoting your upcoming show or whatever it is you’re looking to get exposure for at the moment.

7. Landing Pages

Landing Pages refer to the pages that people “land” on when they enter your site. This is basically going to show you how many people entered your site on any given page. Again, if you’re regularly posting content on your site you will discover that the majority of people probably enter your site on pages other than your home page – this is how you can see exactly where they’re entering.

It’s important to know this because you want to be aware of how people are first being exposed to your site and make sure that those pages sufficiently explain who you are, what your site is, and why they should care. You shouldn’t assume that people will click to your home page to find that out.

8. Exit Pages

Exit pages are basically the opposite of Landing Pages – this shows you which pages people left your website from the most. This is important because it allows you to identify which of your pages are losing visitors – if a large number of people are leaving from a certain page then it’s likely that there’s nothing on that page encouraging them to click to another page on your site. That’s why they leave from it.

9. Map Overlay

The Map Overlay section in Google Analytics is the way you can see exactly where geographically the visitors to your website are coming from. This is important to understand because it helps you figure out if your readers are local, or national, or international. Obviously, this can have a direct impact when you try to convert these readers into attendees of live shows or tours – you need to know where you audience lives.

10. Comparisons

In order to really get value out of the nine statistics referenced above, you need to track and compare them over time. Google Analytics allows you to easily compare and time period to another time period and that comparison is where you can really gain the most valuable insights into what’s happening with your site.

Are you getting more visitors than you did last week? Are fewer people bouncing from your site? Are you getting more Facebook traffic this month than you were last month? Did fewer people exit your home page after you redesigned it?

There’s a million variables that you can check and it’s these comparisons that allow you to understand if you’re making progress and if the work you’re putting in is having an impact. Without the kind of statistics you can get from Google Analytics, you really have no clue whether your website is doing anything for you or not.

How To Create Your Own Personal Comedy School

Articles2 Comments

The Internet has given us access to virtually all the information in the world, but it’s amazing how few people actually take advantage of it – especially when it comes to comedians.

No matter where you live, you can now create your own personal “comedy school” for yourself by tapping into the Internet and seeking out information from experts in whatever aspect of the comedy craft or business you want to learn.

Here’s a few suggestions about where you can find this information and how to look for it.

LISTEN TO PODCASTS

The explosion of comedy podcasts in the past couple years has flooded the Internet with audio interviews with comedians at all levels of the comedy business talking in length about how they approach their comedy and the business in general. At this point, there’s enough great stuff out there already that you could probably listen to an hour of new material every day if you had the time, and there’s more hitting the web every single day.

If you don’t regularly listen to podcasts, you may assume that they’re all just a bunch of guys telling jokes but that’s not the case. Many podcasts take a much more serious tone and you can learn a lot from them.

For example, listening to Marc Maron interview people like Amy Poehler, Dan Harmon, and Conan O’Brien on his WTF podcast can teach you about all different aspects of the comedy business.

Listening to Kevin Smith’s new ABC’s of SNL podcast with Jon Lovitz was a revealing look at how somebody’s career developed to the point where he landed a coveted gig on Saturday Night Live.

On a recent Nerdist podcast, Patton Oswalt talks to host Chris Hardwick about his early days in comedy and his writing process.

On a recent episode of Comedy Bang Bang, Scott Aukerman interviews John Mulaney and finds out how he landed a writing gig on SNL and what goes into producing that show.

These are just the tip of the iceberg or what’s out there – do a little exploring and you’ll find a treasure trove of information available to you in podcast form.

WATCH VIDEOS

In addition to podcasts, YouTube is another great source of educational content for comedians. Some simple searches for videos related to things you want to know more about will turn up some real gems.

First of all, you can find tons of clips of great comedians from all eras in action and watch and learn from their acts, which is a pretty amazing resource to have available. But beyond that, you can also find interviews with successful comedians and hear how they approach their act.

For example, you can watch Dave Chappelle’s Inside The Actors Studio interview, or George Carlin talking about how he changed his act from a mainstream television comic to a counterculture dean.

You can also learn from people who work in virtually any aspect of the comedy business. For example, here’s legendary TV writer Larry Gelbart talking about his experiences as a TV writer and here’s The Lonely Island being interviewed by YouTube’s comedy editor about their viral success.

And of course, you can always check out this interview I did about my take on the changing nature of the comedy business. Again, the possibilities are endless.

PARTICIPATE ON MESSAGE BOARDS

Whether it’s my own new Connected Comedy Forum or existing comedy message boards such as A Special Thing, there are message board and communities all across the web where comedians are talking to each other, sharing tips, and learning from each other. Go join these communities, get to know their members, and you’ll find it can be a great resource for learning.

ASK QUESTIONS OF PEOPLE YOU RESPECT

All the information that’s available to you thanks to technology is great, but what’s equally valuable is the access that these tools can give you to specific people. Thanks to things like Twitter, Facebook, and email, it’s now possible to actually reach out and directly engage with people who have already accomplished what you’re hoping to do with your career. Don’t be afraid to reach out to them directly and ask for advice.

For example, if you admire how a particular comedian has built his career, why not tweet a question to him and ask what he thinks was the biggest key to his success? If you’re wondering how people get internships on the Jimmy Fallon show, just email the show and ask.

Plus, if you’ve got a blog or you contribute to another website, then you can offer to interview people who you hope to learn from. People at every level of their career enjoy being interviewed, and you’d be surprised how many established people will be willing to chat with you for an interview that you want to publish somewhere – even if it’s only going on your own website. And once you get them to agree to be interviewed, it gives you the opportunity to ask and learn anything you want from them.

Not everybody will respond to you every time, but you’ll be surprised how many people will answer you if you ask.

No matter which of these things you decide to pursue and however much (or little) time you put into them, the key takeaway is to understand that you now have the opportunity to learn anything you want to learn about the craft and business of comedy from the comfort of your own home and with basically no cost. So, what are you waiting for?

3 Businesses Launched By Comedians That Revolutionized Comedy

Articles2 Comments

I believe to build a successful comedy career these days you have to also be an entrepreneur. Perhaps more so than ever, the ability to understand and pursue the business side of your comedy is as important as the creative side.

In thinking about this, I’ve realized three of the most significant developments in the comedy business in recent years came as a result of comedians’ business instincts just as much as their comedic talent. Here’s three stories of talented comedians who furthered their own careers and launched many others because of the businesses they created.

The Upright Citizens Brigade

The inspiration for this post came when I was listening to Amy Poehler being interviewed on a recent episode of Marc Maron’s WTF podcast. In the interview, Poehler discussed the early days of the UCB Theater, of which Poehler was a founding member.

She explained that back in 1999, before the group was famous, they decided to open their own theater. Their belief was that having a theater and teaching classes might help them stand out from all the other sketch/improv groups in the New York scene at the time and would allow them to make some money to support the theater and themselves.

Little did they know that launching this business would ultimately spawn the hottest wave of comedic talent in the last decade – eventually expanding to a bigger theater in New York and adding a second theater in Los Angeles. Countless comedic stars have come out of the UCB program and the idea of a “UCB comic” has come to signify a certain sensibility and level of talent.

Sure, there were lots of talented people in UCB back when it started, but it’s likely that none of this happens if this small group of comics doesn’t decide to start a business.

The Comedians of Comedy

In the mid-2000’s, the Comedians of Comedy tour burst on to the scene seemingly out of nowhere and revolutionized the possibilities for stand up comedy tours. Featuring a group of “alt” comics that included Patton Oswalt, a pre-Hangover Zach Galifianakis, Brian Posehn, and Maria Bamford among others, the tour took comedy into indie rock venues and out of the traditional comedy clubs.

This was a revolutionary business model – inspired partially by guys like David Cross – and one which would require a lot of work to make successful. It would have been much easier to just do a comedy club tour like most comedians did at the time.

But Patton Oswalt was willing to put his own time, money, and effort into trying to invent a new business – and it worked. The shows attracted devoted crowds, built fanbases for its comics, spawned a film, and ushered in a new model for comedy touring.

Again, while the talent on the bill was great, it never would have happened if Oswalt hadn’t been willing to be an entrepreneur and build a business.

Funny or Die

Will Ferrell and Adam McKay are funny guys who had well-established Hollywood careers before they launched Funny or Die in 2006. But despite their level of success, they were willing to embrace the growth of online video and put some of their time and effort into creating a new website to showcase comedy online.

Funny or Die has had its ups and downs, but there’s no denying it has influenced online comedy and stands as one of the premiere comedy websites around today. Plus, it’s led to a TV show, become a hub for breaking new talent, a go-to spot for celebrity viral videos, and much more.

But none of this happens if these guys don’t commit to launching a business.

Time and again we see many of the most successful developments in comedy come when talented creative people make the decision to launch a business and not just wait around for people to give them opportunities.

You can admire the talent of comedy’s biggest stars as much as you want, but you should also recognize that in most cases, they’re not just creatives – they’re business people too. And that’s a big part of why they succeed.

Why Every Page On Your Website Needs A Purpose

Member Exclusives4 Comments

Do you know what you’re trying to accomplish with your website? Do you have a goal for it beyond just hoping that people check it out? Have you considered what the actual purpose of your site is?

Far too often, the answers to these questions is no. And if you don’t have an understanding of what you’re trying to get out of your website, then it’s highly unlikely that you’ll get anything out of it.

To help you figure out what to get out of your website, I’d recommend asking yourself the following questions about every single page on your site. These questions are simple, but taking them into account whenever you add content to your site will help you get more out of what you do.

What’s The Purpose Of Your Page?

Every single page on your site should serve a distinct purpose beyond just presenting your content. In most cases, the purpose of your content pages will be to attract new potential fans and convert them into actual fans. Assuming that’s the case, you want to design your page to serve that purpose.

Here’s an example of how that can work:

Let’s say you create a page to show off your latest video. By posting that video on your site, you hope it will be found by new potential fans who will be introduced to what you do.

But most people stop there – they’ve posted the content to attract potential fans, but they haven’t provided an opportunity to convert that potential fan into an actual fan because they haven’t included a clear way for a person who likes the video to connect to them. Remember: the purpose of your page isn’t to display your content, it’s to convert potential fans into actual fans!

So, just as important as posting the video on that page, is posting a way you want somebody to connect to you – recommend that they join your email list, or subscribe to your YouTube channel, or follow you on Facebook and Twitter.

Just because you may have those methods in your sidebar or buried at the top or bottom of your site, it doesn’t mean people will see them. The purpose of your page is to convert fans, so you want to put a reference to how you want to convert them as close as possible to the actual content they’re enjoying.

That’s why you’ll notice on Connected Comedy that on the bottom of every post I have a plug asking people to subscribe to my Free Tips Newsletter – because I want to encourage that connection and not just hope they find the newsletter signup in my sidebar.

While the purpose of most of your pages will likely be to convert fans, there may be other purposes you have as well. For example, maybe it’s to get somebody to buy your album, or come see your next show, or engage with you by posting a comment. There’s lots of different valid purposes for a page, but what’s important is that you have one and take the necessary steps to accomplish it.

There Can Only Be One Purpose

When you start to consider the purpose of your pages, you’re undoubtedly going to realize you want your pages to serve multiple purposes – we all do.

You’ll want people to become fans, buy your stuff, share your content, and do a million other things that seem important. Your instinct will be to ask people to do all of these things (or at least give them the option to), but you’ll have a lot more success if you focus on one main purpose and try to accomplish that.

Pick the one thing you most want people to do and concentrate on that as your purpose – you’ll get much better results. It’s fine to have different purposes for different pages, but on each individual page I’d recommend focusing on one thing, because when you give people a bunch of different options they become much less likely to do any of them. Ask for one thing, and you’ll likely get one thing.

Who Is The Audience For Your Page?

Here’s another thing worth thinking about when you create pages on your website – who is the audience for that particular page?

Not every page is designed for everybody, and it’s worth taking a second to consider who will view each individual page on your site and catering those pages to that audience.

For example, is the home page of your site more likely to be viewed by people who are already your fans or people who are just discovering you? Most likely, it will be people who just discovered you so you’re going to want to create the page in a way that it introduces them to your world. Don’t assume they know much about you and your work.

On the other hand, a page designed to sell your album is likely to be read by people who are already your fans so you want to create that page in a way that is directed at them.

This also extends to your content. A blog post referencing tweets people sent to you should be designed for that audience. But a blog post about the latest Lindsay Lohan adventure was likely created to attract some new visitors who are interested in Lohan but may not have ever heard of you – again, adjust your page accordingly.

What Action Do You Want Visitors To Take?

Once you’ve decided what the purpose of your page is and who the audience is for it, you should think about what the one action is you want that audience to take when they discover your page. Once you get somebody to a page, there’s only one click they can make on that page – so be very clear and thoughtful about what you want that click to be.

Most importantly, understand that when somebody visits a page on your site there should ALWAYS be an action you want them to take beyond just reading whatever content is on the page.

Your content is your marketing – it’s what draws new potential fans into your site. But the action is your “sale” – it’s how you ultimately build your fanbase. If you’re just posting content and not encouraging actions on your page, then you’re doing the equivalent of placing ads in a newspaper for a product that you don’t actually sell.

That’s a pretty ineffective way to build a business…and a fanbase.

What You Can Learn From How I’ve Built An Audience For Connected Comedy

Articles1 Comment

It’s been eight months since I first created Connected Comedy and I’m thrilled with how the site and its community has grown. Connected Comedy’s success up to  this point has come as a direct result of my implementation of the same strategies I recommend to my readers and today I want to illustrate exactly what I’ve done and what’s resulted from it.

Of course, Connected Comedy serves a different purpose than your own creations as comedians, but the general principles of how I’ve grown a fanbase and audience are very much the same. Here’s a breakdown of some of these core principles and how they’ve impacted Connected Comedy.

You Have To Create A Lot Of Content

One of the main things I stress to comedians is the importance of regularly creating content and posting it online. Every piece of content you create is an opportunity for somebody new to find you, and an opportunity for somebody who already likes you to engage with you or introduce you to their friends. It’s important for your content to be good, but it’s also important to produce a lot of it.

On Connected Comedy, I have published 145 articles so far (an average of 18 articles per month), most of which are around 1,000 words long. This means I’ve created and published roughly 145,000 words of content about the business and marketing of comedy – the equivalent of multiple published books – and posted it all on this website for anybody to read for free.

This is a lot of content and is without a doubt the single biggest reason Connected Comedy has attracted an audience.

This volume of content has not only given my readers a reason to keep coming back to the site and plenty of things to share with their friends, but it also has given Google and other popular search engines plenty of content to feature for people looking for the kind of information I write about.

As a result, I’ve had 4,800 people visit Connected Comedy from searches they typed into Google – this is all essentially free marketing that has helped to grow my audience.

You Have To Promote Your Content

Creating content may be the most important thing, but that content won’t find its audience without a little work promoting it as well. Just like I recommend to readers, I’ve employed a variety of social media tools to help ensure that the content I create gets seen. The traffic to my site reflects that.

I’ve had 12,000 people visit this website from links on Facebook, 7,765 visit from links on Reddit, and 3,265 visit from Twitter, among countless other blogs and websites who have linked to this site. If you want to grow your audience, you have to be willing to (and understand how to) promote your content.

You Have To Consider Curating Content

I talk a lot about the importance of curating content in addition to creating original content and this belief is also reflected in the success of Connected Comedy.

Despite all the valuable content I’ve created on this site, do you know what the most viewed post on Connected Comedy is? It’s my post about Kevin Smith’s Secrets To A Successful Life, which is essentially a curated post featuring a rant Kevin made on Twitter.

That post has generated almost 27,000 visits to my site and it didn’t involve me doing anything other than noticing what Smith was saying, recognizing that it was interesting to me and would probably be interesting to my readers, and taking a moment to share it on my site.

You Have To Enable Your Community

Content and promotion can help you attract an audience, but it’s just as important to find ways to build community around your creations. I’m very proud of what Connected Comedy has become, but I’m most proud of the way my readers have united to form a community in which they participate and add to the Connected Comedy experience.

This is reflected in several ways.

On the Connected Comedy Facebook page, more than 5,000 comedians have joined the page and regularly comment and help each other through things like our Follow Friday roundups and Free Tip Tuesdays.

More than 1,000 comedians have followed Connected Comedy on Twitter and regularly interact with me there.

The recently launched Connected Comedy Forum on this site has already become the third most visited page on the site, and there have been more than 350 comments posted on articles on Connected Comedy.

No matter what you’re creating, your audience is ultimately going to be interested as much in themselves and each other as they are about you and your creations. Find ways to allow them to be involved and you’ll reap big rewards.

You Have To Build Your Email List

I keep telling you how important it is to grow your email list and people still keep thinking I’m crazy. I’ve made a real effort to grow my mailing list for Connected Comedy by offering my Free Tips Newsletter and I’ve found it to be an incredible asset in connecting with my audience – much more so than any other social media platform.

I’ve repeatedly tweaked my Free Tips Newsletter signup page, and have now gotten it to the point where 40% of the people who visit that page actually subscribe to the email (which is a pretty big number in case you don’t know anything about email marketing).

Nearly 800 people have subscribed to that newsletter (and 15-20 new people subscribe to it every day) and it’s become a great source of traffic, business leads, and conversation between myself and my audience. I can’t stress enough how effective a tool an email list can be in growing your fanbase, if you do it right.

You Have To Be Patient

Even if you’re doing everything right, you have to be patient and understand that whatever you’re doing is going to be for the long haul. You want to focus on seeing continued growth of your audience and not beat yourself up if that growth comes slowly.

Connected Comedy has grown in audience at a steady pace and I expect that it will continue to grow as such. For example, here’s the number of visits I’ve had to the site over the last five months:

• January: 2,876 visits

• February: 4,658 visits

• March: 5,994 visits

• April: 5,744 visits

• May: 8,172 visits

Would I like to have more visits? Sure, everybody always wants more. But I’m thrilled with the growth and most importantly happy that the readers I get on the site are the exact kind of readers I want. I don’t need to reach every audience, I just need to reach my audience. And to see that audience continue to grow. I’d recommend you think about your own fanbase in the same way.

You Have To Provide Value

Finally, I just want to mention that the most important thing when it comes to trying to build an audience is to understand that the more value you provide, the easier it will be to attract an audience.

I try to provide a ton of value to readers through regularly updated content, an opportunity to connect with a community that has shared goals, and frequent chances to connect with me and get some advice about how they grow your own career.

It’s because of this value that Connected Comedy has gotten to the point where it’s at right now. And this is only the beginning so stay tuned for bigger and better things to come…

5 Questions To Ask Yourself Before You Try To Make Money Online From Comedy

Member Exclusives1 Comment

I spend a lot of time talking about how to use online tools to grow your fanbase and your comedy career, but today I want to talk about how you can actually make money online from your comedic skills.

Before I get into the details, I want to remind you that when I talk about making money from comedy, I’m not just referring to stand up. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s important to think of yourself in broader terms as a person who is professionally funny and finds multiple ways and formats to monetize your ability to make people laugh. That’s what this post is really about.

So, as you consider the many ways you can monetize your comedic talents, here’s a few questions to ask yourself that will help you formulate an effective monetization strategy.

1. Do You Want To Be An Entrepreneur Or An Employee?

One of the first things to think about when it comes to monetization is whether you want to monetize your comedy directly – by creating products or services and selling them to fans – or whether you want to concentrate on finding somebody to hire you to provide your skills to their business. Both methods can be successful, but putting some thought into which better fits your situation will help guide your entire monetization strategy.

If you go the entrepreneur route, you’ll need to create your own products or services, figure out how to market them, determine their pricing, oversee/manage the distribution of your products and services, and deal with all the logistics that go along with owning your own business (and yes, your comedy is a business whether you like it or not).

It’s a lot of work, but the upside of the entrepreneur route can be tremendous – you’ll maintain control of your creations and reap the bigger financial rewards that come with success.

If you choose to go the employee route, then you’ll need to identify other business owners who will pay you to bring your comedy skills to their business.

This could mean getting hired to write for a popular website or to make videos for a company. It could mean generating funny t-shirt ideas for a company that sells shirts. It could mean teaching improv classes.

It may be simpler to go the employee route because it’s essentially just looking for a job, but the financial rewards will likely be significantly less than if you go the entrepreneur route. But on the brightside, it’s less risky and you know pretty much what you’ll get paid for the work you do. As an entrepreneur, there’s no guarantee of success.

2. Why Do People Like Your Comedy?

Most comedians think people like their comedy “because I’m funny.” But that’s only partially true.

Try to understand what exactly it is about your comedy that resonates with people. Is it your writing? Your videos? Your performing? Your viewpoint?

The more you can figure out why people like what you create, the easier it will be for you to monetize your talent. For example, if people like your writing more than your performing then maybe your monetization strategy should be built around writing a book as opposed to trying to go on tour.

3. How Can You Give People More Of What They Want?

Once you’ve figured out what makes your comedy click with fans, the next thing to consider is how you can give them more of that. The best chance you have to get people to pay for something is to give them something they want, so once you identify that your next step is to figure out creative ways to give them more of it.

A great example of this is the way many podcasts are monetizing – through bonus episodes, live shows, and other special member-only features like forums. Successful podcasters have identified that people loved their podcast and then created “products” to sell that give those fans more of what they love. It’s fine to sell merchandise related to the podcast, but there’s a lot more money to be made in paid episodes and live shows because that’s closer to what people love about the show. They love the podcast, so it’s going to be easier to sell them more podcasts than it is a t-shirt.

4. Are You Selling To Fans Or Non-Fans?

When you create a product or service that you’re going to attempt to sell, you should take a moment to figure out who you need to sell it to in order to be successful.

Is it a product that only appeals to your existing fans or is it something that may interest the general public, even if they’ve never heard of you before?

For example, if you’re trying to monetize by selling an album of your stand up comedy, it’s not likely that many people will buy it initially who have never heard of you before. Sure, you hope that word will spread and some people will “discover” your album, but for the most part that album is designed for your existing fans.

But if you create a funny t-shirt targeted to Father’s Day, the market for that shirt is just about anybody that buys Father’s Day gifts – regardless of whether or not they know who you are.

Again, either of these methods can work, but it’s a question you should consider because it will impact what you create, how you market, and the overall economics of what you’re doing.

5. How Much Is Your Time Worth?

As important as monetization is, it’s also important to consider how much time it takes you to make that money. If you have to put in 50 hours to sell 10 albums, is that really worth it?

I’m all about putting in the work and don’t believe you can succeed without being willing to work hard, but that doesn’t mean you should lose sight of how you’re spending your time and what value you’re getting out of it.

For example, if you produce a video series and try to monetize it by offering to create personalized videos for your fans for a fee, you need to make sure that you charge enough to make it worth the time it takes you to produce the videos.

It’s very easy for a monetization effort to turn into something that actually distracts you from other work that may be more important to your career. Your time is valuable, so make sure that you take it into account with everything you do.